Candy Bombers

There's nothing like a good book to chase away the winter blahs. I recovered nicely with "The Candy Bombers" by Andrei Cherny. This true story is about a Berlin Airlift American pilot who brought hope to German children during World War II. And in Chicopee, Massachusetts, American children gave him a hand by making candy parachutes.

According to Cherny, a defeated Germany was divided and occupied by the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and France. Berlin, located in the Soviet Sector, was also divided - East Berlin to the Soviets - West Berlin among the others. Supplies - food and coal - were brought in by trucks, trains and barges primarily by American forces. When disagreements over issues like currency, German unification, Soviet War reparations and ideology couldn't be resolved, the Soviets "cut off all access to West Berlin." This meant no supplies for the military and two million Berliners.

World War III loomed until the clever decision was made to supply the city by air. The Airlift began with one plane and 3.5 tons of supplies but soon hundreds of pilots became involved. As the tonnage grew, a third airfield was constructed. The blockade lasted from June 1948 until May 1949, but the Airlift continued into September.

During the Airlift, however, Lt. Gail Halvorsen, an American pilot, saw German children watching the planes as they landed.

A few spoke English and asked him questions about the planes. Halvorsen shared two sticks of gum with them. When he saw their smiles, he promised more. He came up with the idea of making parachutes out of handkerchiefs and strips of cloth and filling them with candy. Halvorsen added his candy ration to all he could beg off his buddies. On return flights to Berlin he would "wiggle his wings" as he dropped the parachutes. He became "Uncle Wiggly Wings" and "Operation Little Vittles" was born.

Berlin newspapers printed the story, which spread to the States. Within weeks, huge donations of candy and handkerchiefs and cloth for the parachutes came from all over the U.S.

According to Cherny:"The town of Chicopee, Massachusetts volunteered to take charge of gathering the candy and tying the parachutes." Students from 22 schools, from elementary to college level, made the candy parachutes "every weekday from 2 to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 to noon."

I recently spoke with one of those children. Stephen R. Jendrysik, now a retired history teacher, said he was an eight-year-old in the third grade at Valentine School in Chicopee "just down the street from the Elms College." He remembers college students came to his classroom and showed how to make the candy parachutes.

While the children eagerly helped, they were allowed to eat some of the candy. If parents objected with dental concerns, written permission was obtained from the parents who had no objections. Jendrysik remembers his parents gave permission to both he and his first grade brother Richard, who also remembers making the parachutes. At the abandoned Grape Street Fire Station, the parachutes "were boxed and labeled" and brought to Westover Air Force Base, where planes headed to Berlin.

Jendrysik remembers that Halvorsen came to his school in January 1949, but the children were "allowed only to look out the window" at Halvorsen as "he sat in the back of a jeep."

According to Cherny, Lt. Halvorsen visited Chicopee and was honored at a banquet with gifts and the key to the city. He also visited many of the schools to "meet the young people who had worked for months to supply the Candy Bombers."

More than 250,000 parachutes had been dropped over Berlin in just a few months, Cherny writes. One young Berliner later told Halvorsen, "It wasn't [just] chocolate. It was hope."

Later, Halvorsen's military career brought him to Kosovo where he dropped candy during its time of conflict. In Germany, a school was named for him. In America, he received the humanitarian Cheney award. In the 1980s he "worked with a recipient of Operation Little Vittles on an Airlift of Understanding that exchanged high school students between Berlin and Utah, where Halvorsen lives." In 1997, he wrote "The Berlin Candy Bomber," which is now in its second printing. In 2001, an aircraft loader was named after him.

It's hard to understand how two sticks of gum could put hope in the hearts of children. But then you bring in one man's kindness and it becomes very clear.